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Chapter 23: Religion Is Dead, Religio Is Born

Osho,God is dead, religion is dead. Then what remains?

It is an old story.

First, let me tell you the latest death. Last week in the Vatican a Minorite monk, aged fifty-five, constructed a machine for masturbation. His name was Guardiano Alfredo Germonari. Testing the machine, a short circuit happened, and the poor monk died from an electric shock. He was doing a great humanitarian work, particularly for monks - to save them from the disease AIDS. But it seems God is more favorable to homosexuality and AIDS than to a mechanical device which is more clinical, less harmful - unless a short circuit happens, which is very rare.

Now, your question..

Reading the name, Guardiano Alfredo Germonari, I thought perhaps God died because.pronouncing all these Italian names, it is better to die. Their names are so clumsy, just like their spaghetti. At least one thing is certain: God does not like spaghetti, because there is no mention in any scripture; otherwise every kind of detail is given.

You are asking me, “God is dead..” He has never been there. This is just another way of saying that God was our own projection, our own desire for a father figure. As man matures, evolves, becomes more intelligent, the projection is bound to disappear.

God has never existed, and his death is tremendously significant. His death means man is not a machine. It means that man is not a creature, created by someone; that man has an independence. He is not created, he has evolved over millions of years. He is existential, he is not mechanical. The death of God is tremendously significant. It is the declaration of man’s freedom.

If God can create you, he can any moment uncreate you. You are just a puppet. If God creates you, then whatever you are, you are not responsible for it. That’s why the whole humanity behaves irresponsibly. Every responsibility is God’s. If good happens, it is because of God, if bad happens, it is because of God: man is simply a victim.

God is a fascist dictator, and very whimsical. He created the world, according to Judaic and Christian tradition, only six thousand years ago. Then what had he been doing before that - for eternity? He has a gay company with him, a very strange company - and people are known by the company they keep. The Holy Ghost - now what kind of company is this? A son, but there is no mother. This is the trinity.